DECAPOD CRUSTACEANS OF THE BEAUFORT, N. C, REGION. 407 



Genus CALLICHIRUS Stimpson. 



Callichirus Stimpson. 1866, p. 47. 



Callichirus major (Say). PI. xxdc, fig. 10. 



Caliianassa major Say, 1818, p. 238: Gibbes, 1850, p. 194; Coues and Yarrow, 1878, p. 378. 

 Callichirus major Stimpson, 1866, p. 47: ibid 1871, p. 122. 



Integument throughout more or less thin and membranaceous, the most indurated portions being the 

 chelipeds and an oval plate covering the anterior three-fourths of the carapace. Rostrum very small, 

 obtuse, and with a slightly smaller projecting lobe on each side of it on the margin of the front. Eyes 

 minute, situated at about the middle of the outer margin of the flattened and pointed pedimcles. An- 

 tennular pedimcles about two-thirds as long as carapace, stout, densely ciliate beneath, each with two 

 flagella about as long as the distal article of the pedimcle. Antenna slender, longer than cephalothorax, 

 the peduncle geniculate between the second and third articles. First three pairs of legs much com- 

 pressed, the margins of the distal articles especially sharp. First pair of legs probably dissimilar, the 

 larger one in the specimen missing; the remaining one, on the right side, with the chela rather small; 

 fingers weak and meeting only at their tips; carpus as long as hand and somewhat wider. Second legs 

 with long cilia on lower margin; chela short and triangular. Third legs with the penultimate article 

 transverse, it and the small triangular dactyl densely ciliate. Fourth and fifth legs subcylindrical; 

 propodi and dactyl ciliate. 



Abdomen long, gradually widening from the body to the third segment and thence narrowing 

 slightly to the sixth. Sixth segment deeply grooved above. Uropod with the outer branch broad, 

 roimded at the tip and ciliate on its distal half while the inner one is very narrow, almost parallel sided, 

 obliquely truncate and ciliate at the tip only. Telson with an inflated area on each side distally, giving 

 it the appearance of being deeply notched or fissured. 



Length: Tip of rostrum to tip of telson, 96 mm.; carapace, 21 mm.; antenna, 30 mm.; telson, 8mm. 



Color, (in alcohol) white, the cilia everywhere dark brown. 



The somewhat mutilated specimen from which this description was written has been in the museum 

 in the United States Fisheries biological station, Beaufort, N. C, for many years. It is without data as 

 to time and place of collection, but there is no doubt that it came from somewhere in the neighborhood 

 of Beaufort. 



A careful comparison with Say's description reveals a number of apparent differences which have 

 tempted those who have examined it to regard it as a distinct species. Say attributes to C. major small 

 eyes placed on the upper side of cylindrical, obtuse peduncles, a rostrum having the form of a very 

 small, projecting, acute angle, and a telson rounded at the tip. In the main his description fits this 

 specimen very well, and it is believed that the discrepancies are to be attributed to Say 's choice of words 

 rather than to real structtual differences in the animals. Unfortunately Say's specimens, which came 

 from the banks of St. Johns River, Fla. , have been lost and no others have been collected in that region. 



Gibbes {he. cit.) stated that he had specimens of C. major horn the coast of South Carolina and 

 Charleston Harbor and that he regarded them as identical with the species described by De Kay a as 

 Gonodactyltis seiimanus. He mentioned specimens in the Charleston museum and in the museum of 

 the Lyceum of Natural History of New York. Unfortunately all of these specimens appear to have 

 been lost, and it is therefore impossible to pass upon the accuracy of Gibbes's identifications. 



The specimens upon which Coues and Yarrow based their statement that C. major belongs to the 

 Beaufort fauna have likewise disappeared. In fact the specimen from which the present description 

 was taken is believed to be the only one in existence that at all approaches Say's Caliianassa {Callichirus) 

 major and imtil there is proof to the contrary it will be best to regard it as belonging to that species. 



According to Say's account the animal is common along the coast of the Southern States. " It lives 

 in biUTOWs which penetrate the sand to a depth of 18 inches or more. The mouths of these burrows are 

 near low-water mark and often project, like a small chimney, half an inch or more above the surface of 

 the sand. While the exuviae, especially of the large cheliped, occur frequently on the sea beach in the 

 early spring, the animals themselves are seldom seen and are usually to be obtained only by digging." 



In the Beaufort region the species is certainly one of the greatest rarity, for, in spite of the energetic 

 work of many collectors through many years, only one specimen has been found. 



o Nat. Hist. N. Y. Crust., vol. 34. 



